Sunken Great Lakes oil pipeline raises spill fears

This undated photo proved by Michigan Technological University shows an Iver 3 Autonomous Underwater Vehicle purchased by Enbridge Energy Partners for Michigan Technological University in Houghton, Mich. Michigan Tech's Great Lakes Research Center will use the device to conduct sonar inspections of Enbridge oil pipelines beneath the Straits of Mackinac. Some consider the pipes, laid in 1953, a symbol of the dangers lurking in the nation's sprawling web of buried oil and natural gas pipelines. (AP Photo/Michigan Technological University, Guy Meadows)
The Associated Press

This undated photo proved by Michigan Technological University shows an Iver 3 Autonomous Underwater Vehicle purchased by Enbridge Energy Partners for Michigan Technological University in Houghton, Mich. Michigan Tech's Great Lakes Research Center will use the device to conduct sonar inspections of Enbridge oil pipelines beneath the Straits of Mackinac. Some consider the pipes, laid in 1953, a symbol of the dangers lurking in the nation's sprawling web of buried oil and natural gas pipelines. (AP Photo/Michigan Technological University, Guy Meadows)

This undated photo proved by Michigan Technological University shows an Iver 3 Autonomous Underwater Vehicle purchased by Enbridge Energy Partners for Michigan Technological University in Houghton, Mich. Michigan Tech's Great Lakes Research Center will use the device to conduct sonar inspections of Enbridge oil pipelines beneath the Straits of Mackinac. Some consider the pipes, laid in 1953, a symbol of the dangers lurking in the nation's sprawling web of buried oil and natural gas pipelines. (AP Photo/Michigan Technological University, Guy Meadows)The Associated Press

This undated photo proved by Michigan Technological University shows an Iver 3 Autonomous Underwater Vehicle purchased by Enbridge Energy Partners for Michigan Technological University in Houghton, Mich. Michigan Tech's Great Lakes Research Center will use the device to conduct sonar inspections of Enbridge oil pipelines beneath the Straits of Mackinac. Some consider the pipes, laid in 1953, a symbol of the dangers lurking in the nation's sprawling web of buried oil and natural gas pipelines. (AP Photo/Michigan Technological University, Guy Meadows)

In this Feb. 11, 2014 aerial photo is a view of The Mackinac Bridge which spans a 5-mile-wide freshwater channel that separates Michigan’s upper and lower peninsulas. The straits is drawing the attention of some who consider the twin 20-inch pipes that stretch across the bottom of the waterway, carrying nearly 23 million gallons of crude oil daily, a symbol of the dangers lurking in the nation’s sprawling web of buried oil and natural gas pipelines. (AP Photo/ Traverse City Record-Eagle, Keith King, Pool)The Associated Press

In this Feb. 11, 2014 aerial photo is a view of The Mackinac Bridge which spans a 5-mile-wide freshwater channel that separates Michigan’s upper and lower peninsulas. The straits is drawing the attention of some who consider the twin 20-inch pipes that stretch across the bottom of the waterway, carrying nearly 23 million gallons of crude oil daily, a symbol of the dangers lurking in the nation’s sprawling web of buried oil and natural gas pipelines. (AP Photo/ Traverse City Record-Eagle, Keith King, Pool)

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — A freshwater channel that separates Michigan's upper and lower peninsulas is a premier Midwestern tourist attraction and a photographer's delight, offering spectacular vistas of two Great Lakes, several islands and one of the world's longest suspension bridges.

But nowadays the Straits of Mackinac is drawing attention for something that is out of sight and usually out of mind, and which some consider a symbol of the dangers lurking in the nation's sprawling web of buried oil and natural gas pipelines.

Stretched across the bottom of the waterway at depths reaching 270 feet are two 20-inch pipes that carry nearly 23 million gallons of crude oil daily. They are part of the 1,900-mile Lakehead network, which originates in North Dakota near the Canadian border. A segment known as Line 5 slices through northern Wisconsin and Michigan's Upper Peninsula before ducking beneath the Straits of Mackinac and winding up in Sarnia, Ontario.

The pipes were laid in 1953. They've never leaked, according to the system's owner, Enbridge Energy Partners LP, which says the lines are in good shape and pose no threat.

But a growing chorus of activists and members of Congress is demanding closer scrutiny as stepped-up production in North Dakota's Bakken region and Canada's Alberta tar sands boosts the amount of oil coursing through pipelines crossing the nation's heartland.

Concern has risen in the past year following serious spills in Arkansas and North Dakota, and as the government weighs the proposed Keystone pipeline project that would stretch from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. The issue is especially sensitive in Michigan, where another Enbridge line ruptured in 2010, spewing more than 840,000 gallons of crude into the Kalamazoo River and a tributary creek.

The Straits of Mackinac epitomizes a potential worst-case scenario for a pipeline accident: an iconic waterway, ecologically and economically significant, that could be fiendishly hard to clean up because of swift currents and deep water that's often covered with ice several months a year.

The 5-mile-wide straits link Lakes Huron and Michigan and flow near Mackinac Island, which is famed for its horse-drawn carriages and fudge shops. Several villages draw drinking water from the straits and cargo freighters and passenger ferries use it as a passageway. Sport anglers chase salmon and trout, while commercial crews harvest whitefish and perch for restaurants.

Hundreds of activists attended a rally to protest the pipeline last summer. Local residents haven't paid it much attention over the years, but a packed crowd grilled Enbridge representatives at a community meeting this month.

"It's a huge pipeline carrying oil in one of the most ecologically beneficial and sensitive places in the world," said Andy Buchsbaum, director of the National Wildlife Federation's Great Lakes office. "A massive oil spill there would have dire and irreversible consequences."

The Senate's second-ranking Democrat, Dick Durbin of Illinois, and Michigan Sens. Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow sent a letter of concern to the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration in December. Agency head Cynthia Quarterman said Enbridge has agreed to step up its inspections of the Lakehead system since the Kalamazoo River spill.